Trading the quiet life for 5,400-mile Cannonball Run

Mark DaVia of Thompson, Conn., drives his Porsche 996 Twin Turbo across the country every year in the Cannonball One Lap of America race.

Dustin Racioppi

Mark DaVia is a quiet and humble champion, virtually unknown outside the esoteric world of barnstorming rally racers.

He’s a family man, runs a successful business in New Haven, lives in an ordinary two-story home deep in the tranquil settings of Thompson. But for one week each year, DaVia makes a departure from his otherwise halcyon lifestyle with the turn of the ignition on his Porsche 996 Twin Turbo.

That’s when the 600-plus horsepower engine purrs to life with all the subtlety of an angry lion, sending vibrations into his toes at the pedals and through his fingertips on the wheel. He looks across at the competition on the line at an Indiana racetrack and puts the hammer down. Centrifugal force kicks in as he takes off — from 0 to 120 mph in 10 seconds — at the opening of the annual Cannonball One Lap of America.

DaVia gears up for the competition each spring, the creation of racing journalist Brock Yates. It pits almost 100 drivers with questionable mental stability in a series of track races across the country through the span of a week.

Forget about sleep. Forget about adequate sustenance. Don’t even think about $4 per gallon gas or the $4,000 you just spent on tires. It’s all speed — sometimes legal, sometimes not, depending on the driver — for the next eight days and 5,400 miles.

“You start living in this completely different mode,” said Chuck Veth of Madison, a friend of Davia who’s competing in his fifth One Lap. “Gas, that’s just an afterthought. When you add up hotels, meals, gas and everything else, no one component seems to be frightening. It’s all one big commitment.”

Seeks fifth win

When DaVia arrives in South Bend, Ind., at the end of the month, he and his racing partner, Drew Wikstrom of Fairfield, will be looking to add to the history they’ve already made at One Lap — DaVia has won four straight titles, and he’s ready for a fifth.

“In 25 years, nobody has done what we’ve done,” he said. “I don’t think there’s really anyone else who knows how to prepare like we do.”

Veth will tell you that’s true. He and his Porsche 996 GT3 hope to place in the top 10 this year. But he also knows it’s near impossible to catch up with One Lap’s ace.
“It’s an amazing car. He and Drew have done great work on it,” Veth said. “And he drives very fast right away. So if I can get close to him, that’s a plus.”

DaVia and Wikstrom spend most of the year working on the car: Tearing out the engine, freshening the clutch, rebuilding the transmission.

“We literally go through every nut and bolt of the car,” DaVia said.

But ensuring you have a mechanically sound vehicle is only part of the preparation.
One Lap is about endurance as much as it is about speed.

Drivers have two to three races at different tracks in different states each day. Once they complete a race, they are given a certain amount of time — based on the mapped route’s speed limits — to show up at the next track.

That’s where the questionable mental stability comes in. Who would want to put their body through that kind of punishment, and for what? A trophy?

Lots of people.

“Teams come in from all over the world. This is their thing,” DaVia said. “For some people, this is their vacation.”

Veth calls it summer camp for adults.

“It becomes very much like an annual reunion for people,” he said.

Just 1 speeding ticket

It comes with a vacation-like price tag, too. After a $2,500 entry fee, food, a place to catch an hour or two of sleep here and there, and the cost of gas, the high-speed jaunt costs about $10,000. Throw in the occasional speeding ticket and it could be more, depending on how much a driver pushes the limits. DaVia’s only received one ticket in his years racing, for going 74 mph in a 65 mph zone.

“You pretty much go as fast as you dare without getting busted,” DaVia said about the travel between tracks.

Logging all those miles in a short amount of time, and on little sleep, forces a driver to become more like a machine.

When you’re the champ, the money spent is worth it.

“It’s the one thing he looks forward to each year,” said DaVia’s wife, Carole, who raced before the couple had children. “If he’s doing what he loves, that’s how I want it.”

Aside from DaVia’s own desire to capture a fifth title this year, he and Wikstrom are supporting a cause that means a lot to them. They raise money from family, friends and neighbors before the race and donate it to the Yale Women and Children’s Center for Blood Disorders. After losing a child eight months into pregnancy to a blood disorder, the race took on extra meaning for the DaVias.

“Losing our son was extremely traumatic, so this means a lot,” Carole DaVia said.

Most drivers raise money for a cause, DaVia said. Veth drives for The Bowery Mission in New York City, an organization dedicated to helping families caught in cycles of poverty and hopelessness.

But that’s just one part of the week-long excursion around the country.

“The other part is it’s just plain fun,” Veth said. “But you wouldn’t drive a car 160 (mph) down a straightaway and then take a sharp turn if you weren’t trying to win.”

BY THE NUMBERS
2007 stats

Mark DaVia placed first in the SSGT1 Big Bore Class for the fourth year in a row with 1,265 points.

By the numbers (2007)

3,947 official route mileage

12 states visited

8 tracks visited

16 timed events

85 starters

73 finishers

21 rookies

27 traffic tickets

20 warning tickets

$182,000 raised for charities

1 tornado sighting

Source: Car and Driver magazine, August 2007
HOW TO HELP
If you want to donate to the Yale Women and Children’s Center for Blood Disorders: